The floor is going to be bad. If you can see that hole with the carpet there, it will be spooky with the carpet gone. Dealing with the same thing in my 94 Caprice wagon right now. Thought I had a small hole where my heel is, found that the driver's pan is gone from frame to trans tunnel. This is a car that is undercoated, and still has factory paint on the other floor pans. It is because of the heat shield for the cat. All the moisture/salt gets trapped between it and the floor pan. Cut out the bad, weld in new metal.

Carefully check it out on a lift before you make big plans. Hopefully, the frame, and rest of the sheetmetal is ok.

If I needed gauges, I would remove the radio, put in a blank woodgrain plate, and run three gauges there. You could remote mount a head unit in the glovebox.

01-28-12, 01:21 PM

csbuckn

I looked under the car and saw the rusted floor pan and it not terrible but a lot of the drivers front is rusted. Is there a bolt in floor pan or is it all weld in? I was thinking of running the gauges in the glove box and just opening it when racing or tuning. Maybe ill see if NOLA can make something out of the ashtray(hint hint NOLA, lol).

01-28-12, 01:42 PM

The-Dullahan

re: 84 Coupe Deville Project

Nice coupe, rust or not. I really like this body style as a coupe.

That local abandoned '84 CDV has finally turned up yesterday for sale (definitely the same car, there are only a handful of antique Cadillacs in the area and I know them all) but the guy is asking way too much for it, considering the outside of the car looks like it has been neglected for twenty years.

01-28-12, 01:52 PM

csbuckn

Yea, time is on your side. This one was for sell for 5 or 6 months before I called. You may have to wait till he runs out of tax money but they just don't sell at the high prices.

01-28-12, 04:15 PM

The-Dullahan

re: 84 Coupe Deville Project

Quote:

Originally Posted by csbuckn

Yea, time is on your side. This one was for sell for 5 or 6 months before I called. You may have to wait till he runs out of tax money but they just don't sell at the high prices.

Oh no, I am not even considering buying it after seeing it up close. If I had one that needed a new interior, I would make a (low) offer. I know it must have mechanical issues, you don't normally abandon your car for six weeks and then suddenly sell it. I actually saw the owner once. He and another guy (Possibly his father, as he was a younger guy) were in the parking lot where it was left and everything you can imagine had been pulled out of the engine bay and sitting around them on the ground. It had been sitting there for weeks in a puddle of oil and coolant, which I am sure had come from it.

01-28-12, 06:53 PM

77CDV

65 Attachment(s)

re: 84 Coupe Deville Project

I do like those 80's coupes. My Uncle Paul had an 83 CDV just like that, except a darker blue exterior. Pity about the rust, but you can put it right with a little work.

01-28-12, 07:03 PM

csbuckn

re: 84 Coupe Deville Project

You never know, I paid 500 for this one. If you had a place or person to part it out, you could sell a lot of parts, Coupes are so hard to come by.

01-28-12, 07:47 PM

outsider

re: 84 Coupe Deville Project

what a nice looking car! keep us posted on the project :)

01-28-12, 09:24 PM

1980coupe

re: 84 Coupe Deville Project

I had a section of the floor pan rusted thru, you could actually see the ground. This was the rear passenger side section. So I went to the JY and I got a section that they cut out for me and I took it to my friend and he did all the work in one day. And guess what, that section they cut out of the 82 coupe happens to be the same car I might get to swap frames from mine to that one...

01-28-12, 11:35 PM

sven914

re: 84 Coupe Deville Project

I am not looking forward to seeing the condition of my floor pan. The gas pedal keeps falling off, and floor feels warped when I run my hand over it. I try to keep it dry (going as far as removing my shoes before getting in), but in the winter it's hard, and somethings the floor mat freezes to the carpet.

01-29-12, 02:32 AM

csbuckn

re: 84 Coupe Deville Project

Yea, I just took a look at the 90 and it looks good from underneath. I think its gonna work for me. I started it up again and tried to move it, it didnt budge. The fresh looking tranny fluid smells so burnt. They said it worked fine and they would just move it around the parking lot but then it started messing up. I'll get some pics of the rust when I get it on the lift.

01-29-12, 12:18 PM

cadillac kevin

re: 84 Coupe Deville Project

thats a nice coupe Sam. It seems odd how the body panels are really clean (except for the typical spot 2 or so inches behind the rear wheel), then it has bad rust on the inner fender and floorpan.
unfortunately all the coupes I see are in the junkyard (shame too because some of them were super clean- and the junkyards wont sell a complete car.)
I feel pretty lucky that my car has no floorpan rust (I've had the whole interior out) and only 1 rust spot on the drivers sill (my guess is from salt getting under the sill plate)

01-29-12, 03:18 PM

csbuckn

Yea, one of the benefits of living above the salt line. So is sitting salt the main factor with rust or is it the snow? I think I found the cause of the rusted floorboard, a leaking windshield.
I was looking at the reciepts the dude gave me and he got everything done at a dealership and spent tons of money doing it. Tons of receipts and they show that the car has been driven only 18K miles since 1996. I will be parting out this motor so if y'all need anything, let me know. I will also be parting out the all black de'elegance leather interior of the 90.

01-29-12, 04:09 PM

cadillac kevin

re: 84 Coupe Deville Project

I think its the combination of salt+ moisture that causes rust to accelerate quickly.
The windshield would cause floor rot over time (but it would take years of not being tended to.) the floor carpet shows signs of holding some amount of water for some time. my dads olds wagon had a similar looking carpet on the pass side from an undetermined leak. It was blue with white splotches in it (although that could have been from the newspaper we were always lining the floor with in order to sop up the water.)